The Family Program

The Strengthening Families Program: For Parents and Youth 10-14 for Military Families (SFP 10-14 for Military Families) is a seven-session program that uses a skill-building approach to enhance family bonding and parent-child communication, while teaching youth how to deal with the pressures of becoming a teenager.

This seven-week program will be held at various times during the year in the seven project counties. Parents and their 10-12-year-old children attend weekly sessions, which involve spending time in parent-only and youth-only groups for the first hour, and then coming together for the second hour to do activities as a family.

Parents focus on how to communicate effectively with youth, providing nurturance while setting appropriate limits. Parent groups are guided by a DVD with intermittent discussion and activities led by the facilitator.

Youth activities focus on dealing with stress and peer pressure, increasing appreciation for parents, and setting goals for their future. Youth participate in a combination of active games followed by discussions, individual-focused projects, and group-focused role-plays.

When parents and youth come back together during the second hour, they are given opportunities to practice communicating, problem solving, identifying family values and strengths, and learning how to have family meetings to teach responsibility and plan family activities. This is done through group-focused games, as well as family-focused games, projects, and meetings.

Program groups will be scheduled on weekday evenings or weekend afternoons and will be held near where you live. All Program groups include a family meal and onsite childcare is provided for younger children.

This project is being conducted by scientists at RTI International and the Partnerships in Prevention
Science Institute (Iowa State University), in partnership with the USO of North Carolina.
Funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (DA037024).